


The Wonders: A Retrospective.

by Lanna Michaels (lannamichaels)



Category: That Thing You Do! (1996)
Genre: Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-02-04
Packaged: 2019-10-22 13:25:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17663498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lannamichaels/pseuds/Lanna%20Michaels
Summary: "Who are the Wonders?" I hear you ask. "I've heard of every band that tried to ride the Beatles's wave and I never heard of them."





	The Wonders: A Retrospective.

**Author's Note:**

> Wallowing in nostalgia caused by watching the two excellent That Thing You Do vids in this year's Festivids: [ Old Time Rock & Roll by bessyboo](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17537789) and [ Swooner by CherryIce](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17409647).

It was 1964. I was working as a lifeguard between bouts of wrestling with my homework. The radio was always on. I knew all the words to every song and could sing along. But I did not know what Ernest Hemingway was talking about and that was considered more important then.

Well, Mrs. Fisher, here I am, 2014 and writing up the important parts of my childhood. Ernest Hemingway isn't on the list. The Wonders _are_.

"Who are the Wonders?" I hear you ask. "I've heard of every band that tried to ride the Beatles's wave and I never heard of them."

Ah, my friend, but you have heard of them. Their big hit, That Thing You Do? You've heard it. If I started humming it, you could sing along. But you could never tell me the band name, ironic though it is, the one hit wonder called the Wonders. If I told you the lead singer was Jimmy Mattingly, you'd say "oh right, that guy from the Heardsmen". But he was in the Wonders first and it's that band that brought him to public attention in the summer of '64.

The Wonders were a four-piece band out of Erie. It's the usual story, even including one member who broke his arm and was replaced last minute. That replacement, Guy Patterson, is the reason I am here today to tell you about the Wonders. He reached into my heart and pulled it out and then put some sunglasses on it. I fell in love. I was sixteen years old. My love flared bright and strong and then lingered as an ember after the fire was extinguished by my tears when they broke up.

The line-up was as follows: James "Jimmy" Mattingly, lead singer and guitar. Leonard "Lenny" Haise, guitar and vocals. Theodore "T.B." Player on the bass. Guy "Skitch" Patterson on drums.

I was lucky enough to meet Guy Patterson in '86 at the [Puget Sound Conservatory Of Music](), which he founded with his wife Faye (nee Dolan). Faye Patterson should be considered the unofficial manager of the band's early years, if a band that barely lasted half a year could be considered to have early years. At the time, she was known in the press as Jimmy Mattingly's girlfriend and her work was largely invisible. When I asked the Pattersons about it in '86, I got a different story. I remember Faye telling me how she kept the band together in the time before Guy Patterson joined in and caused their big break, how she helped record their music, how she helped organize, arrange, and facilitate everything. It's her invisible work that never got recognized at the time and I won't tell you about the band without putting Faye Patterson front and center. It's because of her that I was able to moon over magazine spreads showcasing her husband.

Guy Patterson was the most skilled musician out of the four Wonders, so it's no surprise that he's still making music today. When I called the Puget Sound Conservatory for my retrospective, they told me that he plays percussion in a faculty band called Old Dog No Tricks. They even have [a youtube channel](), and I have lost many an hour to it. Keep an eye on Patterson. His sense of rhythm is unparalleled and he has a keen eye to understanding what a song needs. He's the one who gave That Thing You Do its tempo. It was a ballad before Patterson got his hands on it. I feel confident in saying that if it had stayed a balled, the Wonders would have stayed in Erie.

That Thing You Do was written by Jimmy Mattingly and Lenny Haise. Mattingly recently retired from work as a producer at Sony and now lives in Nashville. I couldn't find Haise. The last I could find was a mention of him in an article on his daughter Myrtle Quill, an aspiring actress, from 2006. In [the article]() (wayback machine link), Lenny Haise is described as a partner in a motel chain. I contacted Quill, but she told me she hasn't had much contact with her father since the divorce. The number she gave me for him was disconnected. EDIT October 9, 2014: [JonesB in the comments found Haise, he's living in Montana with his new husband and has three adorable rescue dogs.]()

Theodore Player has the most interesting post-Wonders story. He left the band in its final days, before it finally broke apart for good. Patterson told me that it was Player's idea to leave when he did; the rumors that he was pushed out in favor of a more experienced bassist are apparently untrue. Player did two tours in Vietnam and earned a Purple Heart. He then went into the construction business. In '98, he sold the business for an undisclosed amount of money and, with the cash, started T. B. Players, a video game company that specialized in music-playing games and led the way for Guitar Hero. Then he sold T. B. Players. He now lives in Erie and has an estimated net worth of $60 million. Player features in his grandson's instagram by accepting [push-up challenges]() and [failing at Name That Tune](). It's enough to make me feel sorry that I never paid him any attention when I was sixteen. It's always the quiet ones, isn't it. If the Wonders were around today, Player's the one whose Twitter I'd want to follow.

The Wonders and their music clearly mean more to me than it does to the band members. Mattingly's bio at Sony didn't mention the Wonders, only listing their songs in amongst his songwriting credits. Patterson lists the band, but it's in a long list of every band he's ever been in, including ones that never played a gig. Player's official bio goes one further and doesn't even name the band or its music, summing up his time in the Wonders only as "[After high school, he played in a band with some friends before enlisting in the Marines]()".

The Wonders have never re-united. When I asked Patterson about it in '86, he told me he wasn't in contact with anyone other than Player. It seems like it was a band that hit the right place at exactly the right time in all of their lives, but immediately began diverging. They were in this band for fun. It wasn't a business, it wasn't a job, but then it became one, faster than they were prepared for. That Thing You Do went gold two weeks after the band broke up, their rise was that meteoric. But they were never going to last. Player, the youngest member of the band, was just out of school and never intended to make a career out of music. Patterson was a replacement who kept riding a roller coaster he had somehow found himself on. Mattingly and Haise were a decent songwriting duo, but even at the time, you could read through the lines in the articles and realize they didn't get along very well. The Wonders were never going to stay together. I'm just grateful that we got one beautiful, perfect record out of them in the time we had them.

**Author's Note:**

> [this post on dreamwidth](https://lannamichaels.dreamwidth.org/1032498.html); [this post on tumblr](https://lannamichaels.tumblr.com/post/182566509995/the-wonders-a-retrospective-1208-words-by)


End file.
